27 March 2024
Many authors, writers, academicians and intellectuals across the world, including Noble Laureate Amartya Sen, in a joint statement, expressed concern over the democratic tradition in India which is being ‘fundamentally undermined by some recent developments’.
The statement has been issued to draw the world’s attention to how this is being done by the prolonged incarceration without trial of a large number of writers, journalists and social activists, often without so much as a charge-sheet against them. All that these individuals have done is to criticize the ruling dispensation in India.
“Prabir Purkayastha, a 75-year-old senior journalist, author, and founding editor of the independent news portal Newsclick, whose office and home were repeatedly searched for weeks on end for incriminating evidence without any being found, has been arrested and, despite being imprisoned for nearly six months, is yet to be served a charge-sheet; the harmful effects of such an action on media independence are obvious for everyone to see. Others have been incarcerated even longer, such as those arrested in the Bheema-Koregaon case who… have been languishing in prison for over five years without any trial, the statement noted.
“Likewise, many accused in the Delhi riots case have been in prison for over three years without any trial – and often without complete charge sheets brought against them; some, who have been charged, but with no trial in sight, have spent even longer in jail than the maximum legal sentence warranted by the charges against them,” the statement reads.
“This extended incarceration without trial has been given legislative backing, through an amendment to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act passed by the Indian parliament. But legislative backing provides no justification for such incarceration. Indeed, to use it as a justification amounts to saying that Constitutionally-guaranteed fundamental rights can be abrogated through a legislative majority; that, notwithstanding Constitutional provisions, someone can be imprisoned for any length of time by a government enjoying a legislative majority. This amounts to undermining the Constitution and overturning the structures of democracy,” it said.
Signatories to the statement are Amartya Sen, Amitav Ghosh, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, Steven Lukes and many others.
